Technology: Driver Easy Speak

A new additional feature car-buyers can choose to include facilitates parenting from the driver’s seat to the kids in the backseat. By parenting, though, I mean lecturing, and by lecturing, I mean yelling. Toyota’s new technology, dubbed “Driver Easy Speak,” uses a microphone to amplify the voice of whoever is in the driver’s seat (avoiding the dangerous situations when parents turn around while driving to yell at their kids.) While this seems a little crazy, it may actually take off and soon be available in every family-friendly car. Another add-on users can choose to bundle with the Driver Easy Speak technology is a pull-down mirror that attaches to the preexisting rear-view mirror; this would allow for parents to see their kids without turning directly around.